Happy 7th Birthday, James!

James - you are adorable,

cute, and handsome!

You are full of energy, zip, and well . . . energy!

You can be so kind and loving.

You are funny -

and have a big huge smile

and a very loud laugh!

You are smart - very smart!

James,

you are a sweet spirit,

who wants to understand this life and the eternities

more than your earthly body will allow to understand right now!

You are a great game player,

Lego builder,

block stacker,

monkey bar swinger,

paper airplane flyer,

setting your clothes out the night before organizer,

crayon, marker, paint, pencil & pen artist!

James,

you are amazing, talented, and wonderful!

And I love you very much!

Thanks for being my son!

*************

My dad has a little ditty that he often sings, "It's your birthday, but we have all the fun," and I think that sums up James' birthday this year. We celebrated it on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, since the kids would be out of school, and we knew that Wednesday, his real birthday would be extremely hectic (mutual, Cub Scouts, homework, etc.) To say James was excited, is a bit of an understatement. He was solidly in one of his wild, anxious, overly excited moods. Trying to decorate his cake was interesting, since he kept changing his mind about how he wanted it to look, and because he was literally breathing down my neck as I tried to frost it. I found myself getting a little irritated with his "help" when I realized that it wouldn't really matter to him if the cake looked perfect or not - he would find his happiness in "helping" me bake it and decorate it. I changed my attitude. The cake didn't turn out the way I had envisioned, but I sure enjoyed the time that James and I spent together creating it.

When the kids came home from the store, James was excited to show off his finished cake. Jalen Andrew was excited to show it off too (since he thought it was his), and he climbed up on a stool where he could see the cupcakes that were setting out on the stove (James had showed them the cake that was hiding in the microwave), and said, "See? See mine? WoWo (Joseph) dat's mine!" as he pointed to the cupcakes. He sure was anxious to help James open his presents too, and thank goodness, James was gracious enough to accept his help.

When it came time to play with the toys, James also had many who were willing to help. Jalen Andrew took sole possession of the new utility truck, Joseph was more than willing to help James put together his Lego pieces, and I saw the girls both setting up his new Matchbox car tracks, and playing with it - oh, yes, and Grandpa Jones was quite engrossed in the paper airplane's instruction book. We all had a good time. James had both Grandma & Grandpa Jones, as well as Grandma & Grandpa Tober here. We didn't use the camera much, just tried to enjoy the moment instead.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES!